


Predetermined Fates

by StarlightDreamer16



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alluratt, Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Galra Keith, Here we go, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, More tags will be added as the story progresses, Multi, Not Canon Compliant, Punk, Shatt, Slow Burn, Soulmate AU, Trauma, but for now goes by male pronouns, but oh well, don't worry I've got it covered, first things first, klance, not entirely sure what's happening lion paladin wise, pidge will be non-binary, shallura - Freeform, shalluratt, the pidge/hunk is totally platonic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-11
Updated: 2018-06-22
Packaged: 2019-02-13 11:54:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 15,973
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12983538
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StarlightDreamer16/pseuds/StarlightDreamer16
Summary: Soulmate AuLance grew up under the assumption that his soulmate died young. How is it, then, that the further they get from Earth, the stronger his connection to his soulmate becomes?





	1. Prologue

Lance awoke with sweat clinging to his forehead, slicking a mess of brown curls down to fall across his vision. He could feel his heartbeat speeding in his chest, like it did when he chased his cousins or held his baby sister.

Something was wrong.

He knew it the same way he knew that outside his window the ocean thrashed against the sand and above that the stars shone as they had for thousands of millions of years. He knew it the way the adults always told him he would.

Only, he was sure they hadn’t meant this.

When he asked about Soulmates, his parents and Aunts and Uncles always spoke of knowing, of feeling deep in their chest that they had found the one. This didn’t feel like finding, this felt like being lost.

It reminded him of coming home from a big city, and only realising how loud it had been after he was engulfed in the silence of the ocean once more.

Some part of him had gone quiet.

The same part that kept him up at night, hours after his bedtime – eyes closed, trying to communicate with a person he had never met. The same part of him that sprung alive every time he met another kid his age, or a kid a bit older than him. He knew they must be at least his age, he’d felt them for as long as he could remember.

Until that moment.

Nobody spoke of what happened when you stopped feeling your soulmate, but Lance was smart for a nine year old. He could figure it out.

Lance lurched over the side of his bed – the bottom bunk because Mateo had asked for the top and Lance couldn’t deny his younger siblings anything – and threw up the contents of his stomach. Above him Mateo let out a sleepy whimper and, upon seeing Lance, screamed for their mother. He was relieved that his brother had been the one to call out because as he opened his mouth to speak he hunched over and vomited again. Bile burned his throat, and then his nose as the sink of it wrapped around his nostrils.

His mother’s hands brought a welcome chill. She pushed his hair back and muttered reassurances, asking quietly what was wrong. He couldn’t say it out loud – doing so would make it real. Instead, he clutched at her, listening to the beating of her heart in an attempt to calm his own. He knew his father stood behind her, always within range, always by her side.

He clung onto his mother, burring his face into her neck and breathing in her scent like he had done when he was as small as Marisol. His tender heart broke, over and over again, as his reality distorted.

Somewhere out there, Lance’s soulmate was dead.


	2. Chapter One

_Soulmate_  
_Noun_  
_A person with whom you feel an intimate connection from a young age. Distance from one’s soulmate strains the connection. Physical proximity allows a deeper bond to form, often leading to a linking of conscious thought otherwise known as mind linking. The stronger the connection between soulmates, the further they can be from one another while retaining a mind link._

 

_Ten Years Later._

 

“I can’t feel him anymore.”

Shiro’s first words were still lodged in Lance’s chest hours after his rescue. He could feel the weight of them beneath his skin, but any words he could think of to comfort the older man settled on his tongue like oil in water, too dense to set free.

Shiro’s silhouette was distorted from the dust layered over the small window of the cabin – shack – Pidge had dragged them too. He paced, head swivelling up to stare at the night sky every few minutes, like Matt was going to return any second. Lance’s heart yearned to offer something, anything, to Shiro to help him, but he knew better than most that some things were beyond comfort.

Lance knew Matt Holt the same way he knew Shiro – from news stations and magazines and, later, obituaries. He knew he had been brave and heroic and intelligent, because that’s what it took to go to space.

Outside, Pidge walked over to Shiro and offered his open arms. Lance was only half surprised when Shiro collapsed into Pidge’s embrace, hands pulling the younger male closer like a man starved.

Pidge had always come with an air of mystery, but he had gone from socially awkward communications officer to complete stranger the moment he’d raced down the cliffs to save Takashi Shirogane. Of course, Lance would have done the same, and was quick to follow Pidge’s lead, but that was expected – Lance was the reckless one. Pidge was the calm one, the rational one. Seeing the horrified look on Pidge’s face as Shiro was revealed had shaken Lance in a way all else had failed to.

The cabin Pidge had taken them to was a conspiracy theorist’s dream house. The shack was set in the middle of the desert, tucked behind a mountain range and away from sight unless you knew exactly where to look. The wooden walls ached and groaned, warped from years of exposure to the elements, and the one glass pane was layered in years of dust and dirt, barely significant enough to warrant the title of window. Every other surface of the shack was covered in maps.

Maps were plastered across the walls, so cluttered together that Lance could only tell that the room had been originally painted red from the miniscule strip of coloured wood bordering the window. Some of the maps were illegible, covered in messy scribbles as well as Pidge’s familiar handwriting. On a number of them were a repeated series of sharp points, joined by photographs of some sort of hieroglyphics, which had been carefully carved into rock walls.

Lance reached out to touch one of the photographs and Hunk audibly winced. The sturdier man shook his head at him, his fingers weaving together before falling apart and repeating the gesture.

“It’s okay,” Lance reassured, eyes rolling. “I’m not going to break it.”

“Pidge doesn’t like people touching his stuff, you know that, Lance. _Lance_.”

Lance had pulled one of the maps from the wall, and was tracing the hieroglyphics with his fingertips.

“Who said this stuff was Pidge’s? I thought he said he found it.” Lance squinted, trying to comprehend Pidge’s handwriting. “Who knew we had a conspiracy nut on our team?”

Hunk’s face reddened and his fingers paused in their fiddling. “Don’t call him that.”

“I’m kidding, clearly. Relax, Hunk, Pidge knows I’ve got his back. Even if he’s a little crazy.” Lance grinned, doing his best to prove to Hunk that he wasn’t trying to make fun of their teammate.

Hunk and Pidge were close, he knew – even if they didn’t know he knew. It wasn’t romantic and it certainly wasn’t sexual, but they’d bonded somehow. If Hunk wasn’t with Lance he was almost always with Pidge.

“Did you know he could do that?” Hunk blinked at Lance’s question, so Lance elaborated. “The explosions. I knew he was a hacker, but I didn’t know he could make things blow up just by typing away at a computer.”

“Pidge is smarter than he looks.” Hunk’s answer was a non-answer.

Lance took it as a yes.

Hunk’s eyes flickered between the empty spot on the wall and the worn paper Lance’s fingers are absently tracing shapes into. His eyes stopped, stuck on Lance’s movements.

“What?” Lance asked, moving the paper out of the other man’s sight.

“Do you recognise it? The pattern, you’re tracing it.”

“No, I–”

“Recognise what?” Pidge’s voice startled Lance, not because it’s Pidge but because Shiro was standing tall by his side. Pidge and Hunk shared an intense gaze, their eyes conveying more than Lance could pick up. Pidge held out his hand. “Let me see.”

Lance held tight to the paper. “Why? You have hundreds of maps.”

Pidge made a noise of exasperation and Hunk stepped forward. When Lance held the page behind himself to keep it from Hunk, Pidge snatched it from his hands. They ignored Lance’s shout as Hunk pressed him backwards to sit on the bed and Pidge pressed a pencil and blank page into his lap.

“Draw the pattern,” Pidge demanded.

“I can’t, I don’t know how to write in ancient Egyptian or whatever that was.” Lance stared at his friends and Shiro, waiting for them to give in. When they didn’t, he pushed a strand of hair back from his forehead, sent them a frustrated glare and pressed the lead to the paper.

Lance didn’t believe in magic. Sure, there were things, like Soulmates, that were difficult to explain, but they weren’t magic. It wasn’t pulling things out of thin air or vanishing them in plain sight.

He had no explanation of the marks taking shape beneath the tip of the pencil. The lines were thick, digging into the paper and leaving ghost indentations on his legs. His hand moved with a sense of certainty that Lance, despite his constant flirtation, could never measure up to.

When he finished, and he wasn’t sure how he knew the drawing was complete but he knew that it was, he looked up and took in Hunk’s slack jawed face, Pidge’s calculating eyes, and Shiro’s hesitant gaze. He let the pencil fall to the ground and watched the paper flutter after it.

“What the fuck.” Lance heard the sharp change in his speech, the reoccurrence of the strained high notes that had come with puberty, but he was too busy panicking to worry about that. “What the _fuck_.”

He looked at the others, waiting for them to explain what had just happened. After another heavy moment of silence, Lance continued. “I don’t even know Egyptian. I swear, I–”

“That wasn’t Egyptian. It wasn’t any known language.” Pidge picked the page up and compared to the map he’d taken from Lance earlier. They were a perfect match. “None of the known human languages, at least.”

“Are you saying I’m an alien? Are you saying there are aliens?” Lance looked past his friends, towards where Shiro was standing in the corner of the shack.

The older man looked haunted.

“I’m not an alien, I swear. I… Hunk’s known me since we were, like, eight, okay. He can vouch for me. Right, buddy?”

Hunk pulled his face into a more dignified expression. “Nobody thinks you’re an alien, Lance.”

“Oh. Well… good. Because I’m not.” Lance’s eyes snagged on Shiro, or more precisely, on his arm. It had been covered in a layer of grease and dust when they’d found him, but he must have cleaned it off at some point because now it gleamed with an unnatural shine. An unearthly shine. “It’s true, though, isn’t it? Aliens and all that.”

Shiro winced, but nodded. “They found us during the mission. We we’re about to leave for the return trip. Sam was storing the samples while Matt and I were–”

Lance saw the second Shiro shut down. He knew that feeling, the mornings when he’d wake up and wait for something to happen, before he remembered that nothing ever would. Shiro was stronger than him. The older man clenched his jaw and blinked the haze out of his eyes.

“I’m not sure where the others ended up, but I ended up on an army base surrounded by a species called the Galra.” Shiro looked like he wasn’t going to continue, but Pidge made a noise in the back of his throat and Shiro readjusted his position against the wall. “Large, purple bastards. Especially fond of… biotechnical adjustments.”

All eyes strayed to his metal arm and he flexed it self-consciously. Hunk lifted his hand, like a child asking permission to speak, and Shiro nodded, a hint of a smile creeping onto his face.

“Could I… I don’t mean to pry, but I’m an engineer, or I’m training to be and…”

Shiro motioned Hunk over and held out his arm for the other man to look at. Hunk reached out and handled the metal limb with an expression of awe across his face that made Lance want to laugh.

“This is incredible.” Hunk cringed and glanced up at Shiro. “Terrible, of course, but incredible. I wouldn’t even know where to start with something like this. It has to be eons ahead of anything we’re building.”

“Hunk. You can fangirl later.” Crimson spread across Hunk’s cheeks at Pidge’s words, but he let go of Shiro’s arm and sat down beside Lance on the small bed.

The cabin was small enough that sitting on the bed meant he and Hunk were still less than two metres away from the others. Pidge brought the hieroglyphic covered map up to pin it back into place and took his glasses off, rubbing the indentation they’d left on the ridge of his nose.

“I still don’t understand how I knew how to draw those.” Lance chimed in, looking towards Pidge expectantly.

“I’m working on it.”

Lance turned to Hunk, who shrugged. Code for, I don’t know what the fuck is going on and neither does Pidge. Except without the expletives.

 

.

 

The midday sun was brutal against Lance’s skin. He had grown up with heat that wrapped around his body and seeped under the gaps between the doors and the floor and through his clothes. But he had also grown up with the careless rush of the ocean and the whip of salt water across his face.

The desert contained a different type of heat and it was eating him alive.

He couldn’t complain, though, since it was his idea to leave the shack. A better idea probably would have been to attempt to get some sleep, overcrowded and uncomfortable as the four of them would have been in the tiny room. The three younger members of the group hadn’t slept since the night before last, too busy saving Shiro and then trying to figure out what exactly they’d gotten themselves into. Lance didn’t want to think about how long it must have been since Shiro got a good night’s rest. Maybe not since his mission had been interrupted. Certainly not since Matt had disappeared.

Lance had seen the way Shiro twitched, eyes jumping across the room from one thing to the next. He remembered how difficult to was to focus on anything other than the loss, at first.

He’d looked from the hieroglyphics and the maps to Pidge’s scrunched up face and Hunk’s nervous hands and declared that maybe they’d think better if they were actually looking at the mountainous landscape outside.

His only consolation from the sun was that the tension had drained from Shiro’s shoulders, not entirely, but enough to make a difference.

Hunk was up ahead, measuring something with a piece of equipment that Lance had no chance of understanding. He didn’t know where Pidge had found it, or stolen it, and he didn’t know what it was that his friend was hoping to find with it.

Maybe that wasn’t the point. Maybe they all just wanted to feel useful for a while.

Pidge and Shiro walked a few meters before him, close enough for Lance to watch when Pidge drew in a breath and turned to Shiro.

“Are you sure?” Pidge asked, his voice weaker than Lance had ever heard it before.

Shiro was silent for a long moment, facing out towards the mountains before them and letting his eyes drift closed for a few seconds. “Yes,” he replied eventually.

Pidge’s intake of breath was sharp and wet, but he didn’t break his stride. “Describe it to me.”

“It’s not that I can feel it, but that I can’t. It’s… the lack of noise. The silence is deafening. I’m not even sure when I knew. It’s like one moment I knew he was there, and then the next he was gone and I’m not sure when that happened.”

Shiro pushed a lock of hair – stark white, the lack of colour shocking against the inky depth of the rest of his hair – back from his face and stopped walking. Lance held back, aware that he was intruding but unable to leave. He knew this. It was the same feeling that had lingered in the hollows of his bones like a stubborn ghost for a decade.

“I’d always thought it would hurt. I’m a year older than him, I never expected to…” Shiro shook his head, the tuff of white hair falling back into his eyes. “I still don’t understand how it happened, how I missed it. How could I not notice? It was like… like…”

“Like returning to the ocean, hearing the waves, and realising that you hadn’t noticed its absence until it was back, but in reverse.”

Pidge startled at Lance’s voice, but Shiro turned, eyes grave, to take in the darker skinned man.

“Yes.” Shiro said, and then, “When?”

“I was nine. It was a long time ago.”

“I’m sorry.” Shiro’s eyes were wary as he spoke.

Lance nodded but didn’t return the sympathy; it wasn’t what Shiro wanted to hear. “I hope you figure out who it was, I hope you get to make it right.”

A hard edge glinted in Shiro’s dark eyes. “I will.”

Pidge’s hands fluttered awkwardly in the air, more unsure than Lance had ever seen them. Pidge couldn’t keep the pity from his eyes, but there was anger there too. He began to say something, but a shout from Hunk cut him off. As the three of them hurried over, Pidge’s face showed relief.

Hunk stood in front of a narrow opening, holding the scientific instrument against the rock wall. “There’s something here. Nothing I’ve ever seen before, but definitely something. We should go back, figure out a plan and pick up more equipment.”

“No.” Pidge’s eyes were focused on the mouth of the cave. “We go in now.”

“We have no idea what’s in there, it could be any–”

Hunk cut his own sentence off with a scoff and a grumble, and he stepped out of the way so that Pidge could step inside. Lance longed to know how they did that – interacted to easily. He’d known Hunk for eleven years and they’d never reached that level of connectivity.

He let Hunk and Shiro go ahead of him and then ducked into the opening with cautious steps. It was significantly cooler inside, surrounded by shadows, but he could feel the heat waiting just beyond the opening. Up ahead, someone clicked on a torch. The beam of light was pale and useless to Lance, but it was comforting to see something other than the heavy darkness.

Lance ran his fingertips along the coarse walls, feeling his way through the black. With every step, the dark felt less like it was pressing down on him, and more like it was embracing him. Whoever was holding the torch must have turned a corner because suddenly the beam of light cut off.

Lance stepped forward, fingertips gliding over a jagged surface and quietly called out to his companions. He heard footsteps returning, Hunk’s steps familiar despite the uneven ground, and saw a flash of torchlight before his vision was abruptly overpowered. His eyelids flashed blue – bright, electric, ocean blue – and it took him a moment to realise that his eyes were open and it was the cave walls alight with colour.

Before he could say another word, the ground beneath him opened up and swallowed him whole.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm going to try to update this about once a week, but there's a high possibility that that isn't going to last very long.
> 
> Comments/Kudos are greatly appreciated!
> 
> \- Amelia


	3. Chapter Two

His companions’ cries echoed across the open space and registered as muted sounds against the ringing in his eardrums. Lance knew he should reply, reassure them that he was fine despite the stinging pain of what he was sure was a graze across the back of his left leg.

But he was a little preoccupied by the glowing blue sphere, and the massive robotic lion trapped inside. The sphere pulsed with the same comforting energy that had latched onto him as soon as he’d stepped into the cave. Logically, Lance knew that his first reaction upon discovering a robotic lion that could literally crush him to death with one toe should have been fear, but he stood there in awe instead.

Panels of the lion’s metal surface was painted a bright shade of blue, the same colour of the ocean and his sister’s eyes and the sky when rain was distant, but certain.

In the back of Lance’s mind, something stirred.

Hunk groaned as he hit the floor. A plume of dust rose up to fill the air, specks clung to Lance’s eyelashes and he rubbed them away. The feeling in his mind was stored away, but not forgotten, as Hunk crawled to the edge of the cavern and pulled himself on shaking legs.

Pidge was next to drop down, with much more grace than Hunk or Lance. The youngest boy stared at Lance with wide eyes, scanning his body with the same intensity as when they came across a particularly difficult bit of code.

“I’m okay,” Lance reassured his friends. “Where’s–”

Shiro landed in an elegant crouch and Lance’s mind couldn’t help but stray to the posters of superheros that had graced the walls of his childhood room. Shiro looked around the room with cautious eyes that widened with what Lance would have called fear on anyone else.

“What the fuck is that?” Pidge was already halfway to the lion when he spoke, hand outstretched.

Shiro and Hunk stepped forward simultaneously, each taking hold of one of Pidge’s shoulders and halting him only meters from the barrier. Hunk sent Pidge a look that was equal parts scolding and interested. Shiro’s eyes remained locked on the lion.

“Do you recognise it?” Lance’s voice was gentle, but Shiro flinched.

“No. But it’s not human.” Shiro looked towards Pidge for confirmation. The image was so startling when placed side-by-side with the images in Lance’s head of Takashi Shirogane, fearless, heroic, legendary.

Pidge nodded, eyes already running over the barrier, flashing with ideas. “I want to try something, let go.”

“It might not be safe.”

Pidge ignored Shiro’s warning and Hunk’s concerned whine as he twisted out of their grip and reached out to the sphere. The wave of energy that emitted from the sphere felt like the warm ocean breeze Lance had missed so dearly. It left his mind filled with memories of salt water tangling his hair and coarse sand squeaking between his toes.

When he turned, his eyes alight with joy, to face the others, Pidge was on the floor and Hunk and Shiro were a few steps behind, all covering their eyes with their arms.

As the light ebbed away, Hunk groaned and peered over his arms. “I vote for leaving the creepy space robot alone before it kills us.”

Pidge sent Hunk a look of betrayal but Shiro reached out and grabbed onto Pidge’s arm, expressing his agreement. As the three of them competed to speak over one another – Pidge declaring that they owed it to themselves, to _science_ to continue – Lance stepped forward.

And pressed his palm to the sphere.

Lance had long since accepted the fact this his mind would remain his alone, but he was not alone anymore. The presence in his mind was soothing, forming images that flashed across his closed eyelids.

_The dusty mountain range beyond the cave walls, the endless desert past that, the heavy layer of ozone bordering the planet, the deep, suffocating loneliness of space, galaxies filled with colours Lance had no names for, A castle, dark and still on an unfamiliar landscape._

The cold tang of metal against his bare skin jolted Lance back into consciousness. Blinking he dazedly took in Shiro standing in front of him, his metal arm firm against his shoulder. Shiro’s mouth moved, forming words that Lance couldn’t hear. His head still raced with images, but none of them belonged to him.

“What?” Lance asked, eyes flickering back to the sphere and beyond that, the lion.

_The Blue Lion, one part of a whole._

He wasn’t sure where the knowledge came from, but he knew it was true.

“Lance, are you okay?” Shiro’s voice tore his eyes from The Blue Lion. The older man’s forehead was creased in concern. He repeated the question.

“I… maybe. Yes, I think so.” Lance looked from Shiro to the others, stepping out of his grip. “Did you see that? Did you feel it?”

“What are you talking about?” Pidge asked.

“Everything. You didn’t see it?”

“Lance, buddy, all we saw was you touch that thing and go still.” Hunk spoke with the gentle, soft tone that he usually reserved for animals and children. “Are you sure you’re okay? We should get back to the cabin, there’s medical supplies we can use.”

“I’m not leaving Blue.”

“ _Lance_.”

Before Shiro could grab him again, Lance stepped forward and watched as the barrier fell apart around him. The blue light flickered down like firework embers, gone before it reached the ground.

Lance wasn’t surprised to find that the deep blue metal of the Lion’s leg was warm. At the touch, his mind hummed. It took him a second to recognise that the sound was reminiscent of a gentle purr, coming from the back of Lance’s mind, coming from the magnificent creature before him.

_Blue._

The name had come out of his mouth without thought. It was almost too modest for the lion, but somehow it felt right. The purring in his mind increased, drowning out the outside noise of the cave and filling Lance with comfort. It wasn’t something he could explain, the way Blue was both new and familiar at the same time, but it was exactly how he’d always imagined meeting his soulmate would be.

“Lance, come back.” Hunk’s voice was distorted.

Lanced turned, forehead crinkling in confusion, and found himself inches away from vibrant blue light. The force field had closed back up behind him, securing Lance and Blue on one side and his friends on the other.

Hunk held his left hand tenderly, cradling it to his chest. Belatedly, Lance realised that his best friend had tried to follow him through. Blue was still a solid presence both physically, smooth metal against his palm, and mentally, that gentle purr had never faltered.

“These are my friends,” Lance said, both aloud and in his mind.

As easily as opening an unlocked door, the force field fell.

Hunk rushed forward, wrapping his arms around Lance and squeezing the taller man to his chest. Lance winced, partly because Hunk was suffocating him, and partly because his friend’s hand had to hurt even more now. Hunk didn’t hesitate to pull him closer, leaving no sign of his injured hand bothering him.

“You idiot,” Hunk exclaimed, finally letting Lance go. “We have no idea what this thing is, you could have died. That shield could have electrocuted you or … or worse.”

“Blue wouldn’t have let that happen.”

Hunk ran his hands across lance’s arms, checking for injuries, but he stilled at his words. “Lance this thing isn’t a pet.”

Lance’s palm still rested on Blue’s leg. Hunk’s face softened, his eyes weakening with understanding.

“Lance,” he said gently, “I know you’ve been waiting for something to happen. But this isn’t it.”

Lance loved Hunk, he had since the day they met when they were children, but that expression, the sheer pity in his best friend’s gaze … he hated that. He hated that Hunk’s expression was echoed in Pidge’s eyes and in Shiro’s stance.

“You don’t know that.” As hard as he tried, Lance couldn’t keep the longing out of his voice. “Do you remember the first time you felt Katie in your head? I was there, I asked you how you knew it wasn’t just your imagination or something. You told me… you told me that you just knew. I know Blue isn’t my soulmate, but I know that this is something special, something important.”

Hunk’s face transitioned from pitiful to gaping while Lance spoke, his eyes glued to a spot behind Lance. Pidge stepped forward, eyes wide with awe, and Shiro placed a hand on his shoulder to steady the younger man.

Lance blinked, his eyes crinkling as he watched his companions. “Come on guys, I know I make a great point but,” Hunk grabbed Lances arm and twisted so that the taller man was facing Blue. “Oh.”

Blue was looking at Lance, mouth open and inviting. Lance knew, somewhere in the back of his mind, that walking into the mouth of an alien robot wasn’t the best idea, but that didn’t stop him from stepping onto the smooth metal and running a hand along the interior of the Lion’s mouth. Three hesitant sets of footsteps echoed behind him, but Lance’s eyes were too busy absorbing the sight of familiar surroundings to focus on them.

He stepped into a large space, equipped with panels of buttons and switches and touch screens. In front of them sat a large, cushioned chair. Lance let himself collapse into the soft leather. It was a familiar sight, the cockpit of an aircraft, but it was startling to find it nestled past the jaws of a robotic alien lion.

He could feel his friends’ anxiety clogging the air, but for perhaps the first time since his Soulmate had died, Lance felt complete. He reached out and dragged his fingertips across the controls.

Behind him, Hunk let out an impressed breath. “I think you might be right, Lance. This is something important.”

Lance closed his eyes and his mind filled with images once more. Incredible glimpses of entire worlds burning and fading into husks. Creatures Lance couldn’t picture in his wildest dreams. The castle he saw the first time Blue’s memories swarmed his conscious. Despite its dim outline, the castle was beautiful. It brought with it feelings of comfort, of the deep-rooted sense of belonging that came with upmost familiarity.

_Home_ , Lance’s mind called. _Let’s go home_.

He wasn’t sure who it was that gave the order, himself or Blue or some combination of the two of them, all he knew was that it wasn’t just Blue longing for the stars.

Blue’s mouth closed with enough force to send his friends scurrying to find hand-holds, but even their tightest grips couldn’t prepare them for the rush of Blue’s feet leaving the sun-cracked rock beneath them. Hunk lurched forward, one hand grabbing onto Lance’s shoulder, borrowing his friend’s stability, while the other held onto Pidge and drew the younger boy close. Shiro’s metal arm gripped the back of Lance’s chair, metallic fingers digging into the pliable leather.

Lance had a fleeting moment to worry about the heavy rock above them, before Blue smashed through the ancient stone and his vision was filled with dying sunshine. It had been midday when they entered the caves, and it hadn’t felt like very long, but the sun was steadily descending, casting the sky in a wash of pink and red and gold.

Blue stuttered under his control, dipping low across the desert landscape before lurching back up into the air. Lance’s knuckles blanched white with the pressure to control Blue’s flight path before he drew them away in surrender.

“Lance, what are you doing? Where are you taking us?” Shiro demanded, his voice shifting from friendly to commanding in an instant.

“It’s not me. I think Blue sensed something, a ship. It’s like she’s on autopilot.” Lance tracked Hunk from his peripheral vision. His friend’s usual rich brown skin had developed a waxy, green tint and Lance was worried about how Blue would react to the resurrection of Hunk’s last meal. “Hang in there buddy, no puking in the magic space lion.”

Hunk gave him a discouraging grin and tightened his grip on Lance’s shoulder. Pidge comforted Hunk with one hand, his eyes still locked on the horizon unfolding before them. Shiro’s stance was harsh, spine straight and muscles tense.

As they broke past the ozone layer surrounding Earth, Lance couldn’t help but release a soft exclamation of amazement. Absently, he could hear Hunk’s distressed words and Shiro’s sharp response, but all he could focus on was the billions of stars eclipsing his vision. It was infinitely more thrilling than looking through the old telescope on his back porch, or experiencing a simulation of the night sky and struggling to manurer through the pseudo-mission.

Lance’s next thought – that the reality of space seemed much calmer than the simulations had made it appear – was cut off as a spacecraft materialised before them. Where Blue was sleek and comfortable, this spaceship was made up of sharp lines and bulky weaponised armour.

Shiro’s harsh intake of breath cut through Lance’s focus and drew his attention to the older man. He could tell by the glint in Shiro’s eyes that whoever was in front of them wasn’t one of the good guys. Hunk’s hand squeezed Lance’s shoulder as his friend began to unravel.

“That’s like, a real alien ship. Do you see how many guns they have? Can’t we just give them the lion and … and maybe they’ll just go and leave us be, right?”

The look Lance shot Hunk was brimming with betrayal and disapproval, but it wasn’t even close to the intensity of Shiro’s gaze. The older man’s glare could have cut through the ship in front of them had it been weaponised.

“These creatures, the Galra, are ruthless. Even if they get what they want they’ll slaughter us and then our whole planet and then move onto the rest of the universe,” Shiro snapped.

Hunk visibly cowered, and Lance nearly followed him. Only Pidge seemed unaffected by Shiro’s words, the determined glint in his eyes never faltering.

Lance gripped the controls tightly and reached out to Blue with his mind. Blue sent him a rush of emotions, instinctively he knew that Blue was comforting him, reassuring him of his place by her side.

“Hold on,” he ordered.

He pressed his arms forward and lead Blue into a spin without waiting to make sure that his companions had complied. Blue moved through his physical manipulation of the controls, but also through intent. If he wanted her to duck, he only had to press against the controls and she would understand and submit to his instructions. This effortless communication was vital when the first gun sent its power out to meet them. Blue twisted out of range and swerved back around to face the opposite side of the ship. However, once the first gun had gone off, it was as if the first shot had released the restraints of the rest.

Lance had never been taught to dodge enemy fire.

Blue had been.

It was the most natural thing in the world for Lance to relinquish control to Blue. In a way, it didn’t even feel like he had lost his position, more that he’d stepped to the side to share the burden. It was Lance’s hands that guided the Lion and activated the weapon deep in her throat, but it was Blue’s mind in control.

The blast of power from Blue’s mouth canon left a burning sensation deep in the back of Lance’s throat and for a moment he wasn’t sure which he was, Lion or man.

The impact of the beam sent a crack splintering across the Galran ship and Lance let out a shout of surprise. The shots the Galran ship sent back in retaliation were narrowly avoided by a quick twist of the controls. Blue moved fluidly, more flexible than Lance had expected her to be, and weaved between the blasts, slowly pulling attention away from the plant behind them.

The Galran ship was incredibly large, but what it made up for in weaponry, it lost in speed. Blue was faster than any of the ships Lance had watched, eyes wide hoping to one day get to fly, while he was a student at the Garrison. So fast that Shiro let out a gasp behind him and Lance followed his wide-eyed gaze to Kerberos, a destination that should have been months away rather than minutes.

Before he had the chance to dwell on the sheer speed required to accomplish such a feat, the space before them opened, stars collapsing in on each other as their surroundings blurred into a churning black hole. In his mind, the image of the castle flashed.

“I think Blue wants us to go through,” Lance announced, turning back to send his companions a hesitant expression. “Shiro, you’re the highest ranking. It’s your decision.”

If he hadn’t been looking at the older man as intensely as he was, he would have missed it. For a split second Shiro’s gaze wavered, fear flicking at the edges as memories crept in the glaze his eyes. Shiro blinked and determination shone through his stare. He turned to the others, shoulders straight, and Lance wondered if what he’d seen was real.

“This has to be a team decision,” Shiro declared.

Pidge spoke with a level of confidence Lance had only ever seen related to computer software. “I’m going.”

“Okay.” Hunk’s forehead wrinkled as he watched Pidge, hesitance dissolving into resolve. “So am I.”

Shiro met Lance’s eyes and nodded once, a stiff movement. Lance guided Blue forward, the lion eagerly plunging into the swirling depths.

As they crossed the threshold something blossomed, deep in Lance’s mind.


	4. Chapter Three

The castle held the same sense of haunting stillness that Lance had experienced when he was six and wandered off into the woods near his home. The animals and the birds had fallen completely silent and the forest had changed from beautiful to eerie in an instant. The quiet had been too unnatural to be comforting.

Blue had dropped them off with a gentle push in Lance's mind to continue forward into the dark halls. Their footsteps echoed across the wide corridors and multiplied behind them, creating a symphony of sound. It gave the impression that they were not alone.

Lance hoped it wasn't true.

Despite the shadows and the abundance of dust, the castle was magnificent. It retained the sense of familiarity and calm from Blue's memories, but with none of the comfort. As he glanced around at the metallic walls, Lance received flashes of what it would have looked like in its prime.

He wondered what had happened to the original residents.

He wondered if he wanted to find out.

By his side, Pidge shot looks over his shoulder towards Shiro, uncertainty lacing his expression. Shiro was the obvious choice for leadership, he wouldn't have walked into a seemingly abandoned castle on an alien planet. He wouldn't have climbed into the mouth of a robot lion without any reassurance that he would survive either. Lance respected that, but as much as he admired Shiro, he trusted Blue more. He could feel her presence in the back of his mind, a gentle throb of familiarity encouraging him forward.

Blue wanted him in the castle, that was enough for him.

The hallway curved into a sharp turn and Lance reached out and ran his fingertips along the walls as it narrowed. A moment later his fingers lost contact as the corridor opened into a large room. One wall was covered in floor to ceiling windows, the stars glittering in from the distance. The rest of the room was a strange mix of science-fiction and fantasy. A complicated looking set of controls were placed before the windows, with tiny glowing crystals interwoven into the technology.

Pidge made a sound deep in his throat and scampered across to study the control panel. Hunk sent Lance a hesitant glance before moving to take a closer look at one of the larger crystals that appeared to be growing from the ceiling like a stalactite. Shiro crossed his arms, the metal of his prosthetic glinting in the darkness.

"Don't touch anything. There's no way of knowing what's safe and what isn't," Shiro declared. "Pidge, I said-"

The crystal before Hunk lit up a deep purple, causing the larger man to jump back and place himself firmly behind Lance, fingers digging into his friend's shoulders. Pidge held up his hands, backing away from the now glowing control panel.

"This wasn't me," Pidge swore.

As the room was illuminated by the glow of the crystals, two large pods were revealed. 

The pod closest to lance opened with no warning, and a cloud of white fell forward. Before he could process what was happening, Shiro had already lurched forward and caught the new arrival in his arms. The cloud was a woman, her hair loose in boundless white curls that reached down to her waist. Her skin was a gentle shade of brown, sitting somewhere between Lance and Hunk's complexions. The contrast between her pale hair and dark skin should have been strange, but it only amplified her ethereal beauty.

Lance was equally encapsulated by male and female beauty, so he could say without prejudice that this woman was the most beautiful human he had ever laid eyes on. The only person in the room that didn't seem to be enchanted by the woman before them was Pidge, who stepped backward, wringing his hands together. Even Shiro was staring at her with awe-clouded eyes.

When the woman opened her eyes, Lance realised that there were pale pink markings beneath them and for the first time he wondered if perhaps human had been the wrong classification.

The woman's eyes seemed to widen as she took in Shiro's proximity. Slowly, with a melodic voice, she spoke.

"Hello," she whispered.

Shiro flinched, his whole body shaking, and hastily stepped away from her. His eyes were wide with an unexplainable terror as he regarded the white-haired beauty before him. Lance wasn't sure whether it was intentional or not when Shiro wiped his hands against his clothes with a rough gesture.

She stumbled at Shiro's sudden release but was quick to regain her balance. The look she sent the older man held more emotion than Lance thought Shiro's impoliteness warranted. She seemed to remember the situation quickly, turning to Lance, Pidge and Hunk and narrowing her eyes.

"I am Princess Allura of Altea and you are trespassing. State your purpose here." Her forehead wrinkled as her gaze drifted a little to the left of Lance's face. "What is wrong with your _ears_?"

He reached up and covered his ears protectively, only just noticing the sharp points of her own ears. "My ears are fine, what's wrong with yours?"

Allura scoffed at him and turned her back on Lance and his companions, moving gracefully to the control panel and bringing up a holographic screen filled with an unfamiliar language. No, not entirely unfamiliar. The letters held the same elegance that the strange text from the cabin had held. It made as little sense to him as it had back when he had copied it entirely from memory. Blue's memory, he realised with a shock.

Whatever Allura found made her release a sharp gasp and need to steady herself on the edge of the control panel. She brought a hand up to her lips, her fingers trembling.

"Ten thousand," she whispered before quickly turning at a sound across the room.

The second pod opened, and a man stumbled out. His hair was a shocking shade of orange and his moustache was the most impressive piece of facial hair Lance had ever seen. His steps were uneven but before Lance could move forward to steady him, the older man crumpled to his knees, covered his face with his hands, and screamed.

The white-haired princess, Allura, looked on as the ginger-haired man grasped at his chest like he was attempting to tear out his own heart. The expression on her face was almost as heartbreaking as the hoarse screams echoing through the room. Allura snapped out of her shock a moment before Lance did and collapsed onto her knees before her companion.

"Coran." Her voice broke as she forcibly took hold of his hands, revealing more strength than Lance would have expected from her slender frame. "Coran, please. Look at me, it's okay. We've been asleep. No one is attacking us."

Coran's eyes were bloodshot when he looked up. The look in his eyes was pure agony, like he was suddenly more alone than he had ever been in his life. Lance didn't think it had to do with the abandoned castle, not solely at least.

"Alfor," Coran choked out.

Allura flinched at the name. "No, it's just me. I couldn't find any record of-"

" _No_. Alfor he … Zarkon was here and," Coran's voice faded into a moan, "Oh Quiznak, there was so much blood. And now I can't, I can't…"

Coran clutched at his chest, pulling at his clothes and clawing at his covered skin. Allura stepped back, her knees buckling as she collapsed. Shiro was there in an instant, holding her up from the ground. If she noticed his presence, she didn't show it, her eyes didn't stray from Coran's desperate movements.

Something lurched in Lance's chest. The way that Coran had moved onto dry heaving sobs. The way he could feel Hunk glancing at him like he was worried he would crack. Allura's heartbroken eyes. Lance knew this feeling, knew why Coran was so desperate to climb out of his own skin.

Alfor was Coran's soulmate. And he was dead.

Coran seemed to notice the faint tint of red on the floor surrounding him the same moment that Lance did. The older man scrambled back, his cries changing into wild, uncontrolled gasps. Allura was trembling in Shiro's arms and Hunk and Pidge were behind him shooting each other deep looks of concern, so Lance stepped forward and knelt in front of Coran. It wasn't his place to intrude on such an intense moment, but he was the only one there who seemed to be capable of helping at the moment.

"Coran," Lance demanded, his voice stronger than he expected it to be, "you need to calm down and you need to breathe."

Coran looked at him, but his eyes were so wild with emotion that Lance knew that his words weren't getting through to him. Instead he did the only thing he could think of. The thing he did when Mateo skinned his knees or Marisol lost a tooth. The thing his older siblings had done when he had a nightmare.

He hugged Coran and he didn't let go.

He'd expected the older man to struggle, but instead he collapsed into Lance's arms and hid his face in the crook of his neck. In many ways it was no different than comforting his younger siblings, but the rough brush of Coran's moustache grounded him to reality. He wasn't sure how long he held him, but when Coran finally pulled away it was with a weak smile and red rimmed eyes.

"I'm sorry," the red-haired man said. "I don't believe we've met."

Lance sent him a grin and held out a hand. "Lance McClain, best pilot Earth has to offer."

Behind him, Pidge snorted. Coran didn't seem to know what to do with the hand Lance had offered so he retracted it.

Coran's smile was bright enough that Lance would have never suspected that he had been bawling his eyes out only minutes before, if not for the dampness lingering in the crook of his neck from the older man's tears.

"Coran," he announced. "King-consort of Altea. What is an 'Earth'?"

Before Lance could ask what that meant, Allura called Coran over to the control panel and spoke to him in hushed tones. Lance turned back to his companions, not sure whether he should be happy or not that the Alteans clearly didn't see them as a threat. Pidge and Hunk were standing side by side, Pidge's eyes filled with determination, Hunk looking like he might throw up. At Lance's probing gaze, Hunk sent him a weak smile.

Shiro stood away from the group, his forehead creased as he glared at the ground. Every few seconds he glanced up in Allura's direction and his frown deepened.

"Hey man," Lance said, stepping closer to his hero. "Are you okay?"

Shiro startled, looking at Lance as if he'd forgotten he was there. "Don't worry about me. We need to check the oxygen levels to make sure this atmosphere is tolerable for humans."

"We could ask," Lance replied, already moving towards Allura and Coran.

Shiro grabbed his arm with the metal prosthetic, holding on too tightly for a second before adjusting his grip. "We can't be certain that they're not dangerous. We need to stick together."

He frowned. "Blue trusts them, and I trust her. Plus, I'm pretty sure if they wanted to hurt us they would have done something already."

"The Galra were scared of Alteans. That's why they wiped them out of existence," Shiro insisted. "They tried to hide it but whenever news of a possible resurfacing came there was fear in their eyes." 

Lance's eyes darted towards Allura and Coran. "Well that's good then, right? The enemy of our enemy is our friend and all that."

"It's usually not that simple."

Lance stepped away from Shiro, twisting his arm to release the older man's grip. He almost sprinted over to the Alteans. They looked up curiously when he approached, and he sent them a smile.

"So," Lance said, "Is the air here going to kill us or what?"

Allura blinked. "Excuse me?"

"Humans need like, oxygen and stuff to survive. Are we going to be able to breathe in here? I mean, obviously we are breathing but is your air going to hurt us?"

"Oh." Coran smiled and typed something into the control panel. "The castle is equipped to adjust the air to be breathable for all. Peaceful relations and all that."

Pidge was suddenly pushing Lance's elbow out of the way to stand beside Coran. "How does that work? How does it not cause a juxtaposition if two opposite atmospheric species are co-inhabiting a space?"

Lance stepped away, letting Pidge continue to fire questions at Coran, and made his way towards his best friend. As he passed Shiro he sent the older man a satisfied grin.

Hunk was leaning into one of the pods the Alteans had emerged from, his face obscured by the metal. He slid his hand across the thick glass, his eyes filled with awe.

"Careful," Lance warned. "Katie might get jealous if you keep looking at it like that."

Hunk snorted and turned so that Lance could witness his exasperated expression. "You know very well that our Soulbond is nothing more than platonic. Not only is she asexual, she's also four years younger than me."

"Yeah, yeah, I know. Calm down, dude, I was joking." Lance's expression turned serious. "I wanted to ask you something about her, actually. What's it feel like, being so far away from her? Can you still… sense her?"

Hunk ducked his head back into the pod, out of Lance's view. "Well… uh…"

Hunk's words were cut off by the sudden brightness that filled the room. Coran let out a cheer as the overhead lights were successfully activated. Lance swore he heard Hunk breathe out a sigh of relief. He must have been freaked out by the shadows, he'd never been great with darkness.

Allura waved them over and, setting her palms on her hips, returned to glaring at them. "Now that the castle is operating as it should once more, I have questions and you are going to provide answers."

Lance could see Hunk fidgeting by his side. Pidge elbowed the larger man in the side and he stopped.

Lance stepped forward and winked. "Fire away, Princess."

Allura mouthed the word 'fire away' to Coran with confused eyes before turning to the rest and frowning. "What are your intentions with my people and my castle, what is your status in relation to the Galran Empire, and how did you get here?"

Lance held up a hand and raised his fingers as he answered. "One, none of us had any idea Altea even existed until literally like ten minutes ago. Two, they kind of tried to kill us before we got here so I'd say not a positive relationship there. And three, a giant blue lion brought us here."

The Alteans eyes were wide and Lance realised that the markings beneath their eyes were glowing faintly. The soft pink lit up Allura's face and highlighted her flawless skin but before Lance could truly admire it she was stomping forward, and her hands were tight on his shirt as she pulled him to her.

In any other situation, Lance would have been thrilled to have a beautiful woman pulling his face towards hers. Except Allura looked more likely to throw him out a window than kiss him.

"You stole the blue lion!" She proclaimed, her voice laced with anger. "How dare you. I should have known you were working for the Galra. You will surrender the blue lion at once or I will take her back by force."

At the end of her threat she lifted him into the air with ease. He scrambled to retain his balance, his feet being a good meter above the floor, and grabbed onto the Princess' arms as he kicked his legs in place. His friends startled, Hunk and Pidge reaching out like they wanted to help but backing away at Allura's glare.

Shiro stepped forward and laid a hand on her shoulder. "Put him down."

She flinched and held Shiro's gaze for a moment before releasing Lance to collapse to the ground.

Lance scrambled up with a groan, stretching out his arms and sending Allura a glare. "Are you insane? Firstly, why the fuck are you that strong? And secondly, I didn't steal Blue, she practically stole me."

Allura looked between Lance and Coran, her brow wrinkled. "Are you saying the blue lion chose you as her paladin?"

"She let me pilot her, if that's what you mean."

"Impossible. You, a paladin of Voltron?" Allura scoffed and seemed to retreat into her own thoughts. "Although, I suppose that means that Zarkon never managed to find the lions."

"Not yet." Shiro added. "But he's looking for them."

Allura and Coran looked at him in surprise and the younger of the two quickly returned to the control panel, pulling up more of the foreign/familiar language. Whatever she found seemed to rattle her.

"That's not… It's been ten thousand years, he can't be alive. He can't." Allura whispered.

"He is. I was his prisoner." Shiro's eyes darted away from the Princess when she looked back at him. Shiro raised a hand to the scar across his nose.

Allura's gaze hardened. "He's searching for Voltron because he knows that it's the only thing that can defeat him. We are going to find it first." She stepped closer to the controls and began typing something in but paused and gasped before anything could happen. The crystal overhead changed from purple to red in an instant and a deafening sound echoed through the room.

"That's not good, right?" Hunk asked nervously. "Yeah, I'm going to assume it's not. Oh my God, we're going to die. Lance, Lance, we're going to-"

He turned to the larger man and placed a hand on his friend's shoulder. "Hunk, buddy. Calm down, we aren't going to die. Right, Allura?"

Allura was typing furiously on the control panel and sorting through the images that popped up on the holographic screen before her. "A Galran ship is approaching. Coran, how long until arrival?"

"By my calculations, they should be here in a few quintants, Princess."

Lance turned back to Hunk. "Okay, yeah. We're totally going to die."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry that this took forever! I was doing a summer subject for Uni to keep me from sleeping the whole holidays away and I lost track of time. In my defence, I did warn you that I'm terrible at updating. I do have most of the next chapter written and planned out though so, fingers crossed?
> 
> I hope you liked this update. I keep meaning to have more actually happen in the chapters but then I'm at 3,000 words and have to stop before the chapters turn into novels. I promise that our favourite emo-kid will make an appearance very soon.
> 
> Also, just so you know, this won't be a canon compliant story. It will have canon elements but I'm hoping to make it a bit darker and way more angsty.
> 
> (On an unrelated note: I've cosplayed Keith and his jacket is literally the most ridiculous thing on the planet. The collar goes up to my ears. MY EARS. KEITH WHY? Don't get me started on the gloves.)


	5. Chapter Four

Allura shot Lance a look that was equal part determination and irritation. It was such a familiar look that, for a moment, despite her wild hair and ridiculous ears, the princess reminded Lance of home.

"No one is going to die," Allura reassured, sparing a glance in Hunk's direction.

"I'm sorry, did you miss the giant alien warship headed towards us?" Lance questioned. "I'm an incredible pilot - the best really, ask anyone - but I'm ninety-five percent sure that we only survived last time because Blue made that wormhole thing."

"A few quintants is plenty of time to gather the rest of the lions. When the Galran ship arrives, it won't be facing just one lion, but Voltron." Allura picked up her mass of hair and twisted it into a bun with an ease that surprised Lance.

"Exactly," Coran said. "A few quintants, oh, uh," he stumbled at the blank looks of those unfamiliar with Altean time, "Vargas? Rotations?"

"Rotations. Yes, I know this." Shiro's face brightened as he turned to Lance and the others. "A rotation is essentially a day, not exactly, but close enough. So, a few quintants would be a few days."

"We only have a few days to locate some ancient weapon that this Zarkon guy has been trying to find for ten thousand years? Right, I see no problem there," Pidge commented.

"Not find, number four, just retrieve. Allura will be doing the searching," Coran corrected. "Her life force is connected to the lions, she is the key to finding them."

Their eyes strayed to Allura, still hunched over the screen of the control panel reading something in the language that was nearly familiar to Lance.

"Princess?" Coran questioned. "The lions?"

Allura looked at them, a blush rising across her cheeks. "Yes. Yes, of course."

She walked over to the largest crystal, the stalactite, and closed her eyes. One moment the room was normal, and the next it was filled with stars. There were billions, in a million new constellations Lance had never seen before. Slowly, they seemed to zoom in, and the stars changed from specks to burning orbs, until there were planets in front of him. Unfamiliar planets with unfamiliar moons and strange suns.

Allura repeated the process, focusing in on a different cluster of planets. And then the stars were gone, returned to the vastness outside the window of the control room.

On the hologram behind her, Allura pulled up four locations alongside five lions.

"These are the locations of the lions of Voltron," Allura stated. "Voltron was a weapon created to maintain peace in the Universe. However, it was hidden when Coran and I were put to sleep and the Universe now only knows of it as legend. Zarkon, however, knows that it is real and would do anything to get it.

"Each of the five lions performs an essential role in forming Voltron and chooses paladins with matching quintessence. The Blue lion, and her paladin, is the heart of Voltron, the blue paladin ensures that their companions are comfortable and appreciated for their true talents. Lance, the Blue lion has chosen you as her paladin."

Lance felt a surge of protectiveness and fondness from within his mind, coming not from his own thoughts but Blue's. He sent a mirror image of the love he was experiencing back to her, infinitely grateful to be considered worthy by her.

Outwardly he sent finger guns and a grin towards the princess. "Clearly, Blue favours the most attractive pilot of the group."

Ignoring him, Allura continued. "The Green lion is the brain of Voltron and will need someone who is curious and eager for adventure. Her paladin will require quick-thinking and the desire to continuously learn new things. Their job is the imagine the impossible. Pidge, you will pilot the Green lion."

Pidge grinned at her words, stepping closer to the holographic depiction of his lion.

"The Yellow lion is selfless and benevolent; her pilot gives priority to all others' needs before their own. With a mighty soul, the yellow lion and her paladin will encourage their teammates to do their best and support them in all endeavours. Hunk, you will fly the Yellow lion."

Hunk's face paled. "I'm not a pilot. I can't-"

"You can." Allura reassured Hunk before turning to Shiro. "The Black lion is the head of Voltron and requires someone level-headed and sharp-witted. Someone that others will follow without question or hesitation. A natural-born leader. Shiro… you will be her pilot."

Shiro nodded, his gaze locked onto Allura's. "I will try my best, princess."

"That's only four," Lance said. "You said there were five lions of Voltron. What about the Red lion?"

Allura turned to the rotating image of the Red lion. "Unfortunately, I am as of yet unable to locate the red lion. I will continue searching for her while you retrieve the other lions."

"The Black lion looks like it's in the same location as the Blue lion," Pidge commented.

"That is because it's here, in the castle. My father locked it away and it cannot be accessed unless all four of the other lions are present. I am sorry Shiro, but you will have to wait to meet your lion. In the meantime, you will assist Pidge with the Green lion while Lance will accompany Hunk to retrieve the Yellow lion. I have sent the coordinates to the Blue lion and the castle's transport ship."

Pidge and Hunk were quick to leave the room, speaking excitedly about their lions. Lance hesitated when he noticed that Shiro had yet to move.

"Shiro, you coming?" Lance asked.

Hunk's laughter echoed through the corridor, chased by the sound of Pidge's quick steps as they ran ahead. Shiro's spine was rigid as he faced Allura, who still maintained eye contact with the older man. Lance felt the odd sensation that he was interrupting something, only Shiro already had a Soulmate and he'd barely spoken to the princess so there wasn't anything there to interrupt.

"Shiro," Lance called again.

The older man blinked, his eyes lingering on the princess before he turned to face Lance. "Sorry, what was that?"

"I said, are you coming?" Lance's smile felt too tight on his face. "Pidge is probably already halfway to the transport based on how quickly he dashed off."

"Oh, yes. Of course." Lance didn't miss the way Shiro's eyes darted back towards Allura before he finally followed him into the hallway and after the others.

.

Retrieving the Yellow Lion had been one of the most difficult, and dangerous, tasks Lance had ever attempted. It was the first time he had truly feared for his own life or that of his friend's. But they'd somehow managed to make it out alive with the new lion.

Lance left hunk behind to get acquainted with Yellow, winding through the corridors of the castle and letting his mind drift to places he usually didn't. Alone - and not fearing for his life - for the first time since he met Blue, Lance closed his eyes. He allowed himself to seek out the flutter that had brushed against the back of his mind when they left Earth. It had been so faint, and it had been so long since he'd felt anything that he was almost positive that it was his imagination.

But there it was. Something warm and alive sitting quietly in the back of his mind, where his Soulmate bond should have been. He didn't - couldn't - let himself think about what that meant. Hunk hadn't shown any evidence of losing his connection to Katie, despite the distance and Shiro had described the same feeling of loss that had lodged itself under Lance's skin ten years prior.

His soulmate was dead. It was a reality that he despised but accepted. It was his own brand of normal, and he was content to live with that. Allowing himself to believe otherwise, even for a second, would be catastrophic to his mental health if he were wrong.

A low noise broke him out of his thoughts. He stilled, muscles tense and waited for the attack he had been anticipating from the moment Allura told them about the Galran ship. Instead, the noise sounded again, and Lance was able to recognise it for what it was. Not a growl or a battle cry, but the hoarse sound of a muffled sob.

It was a noise Lance knew intimately.

Cautious not to drag the soles of his feet against the floor, he crept closer and peered around the doorframe of the closest room. The room was sparsely decorated, with rows of shelving against the walls and boxes crowding the already narrow room. If not for the gleaming devices on the shelves, the storage room would have been identical to the cleaner's closet in the Garrison.

He almost missed Coran's still form, curled up in a cluttered corner against the wall. The older man had his legs drawn up to his chest, with his face pressed against his kneecaps and his arms wrapped around his motionless body. Another deep, raspy cry escaped the man's throat and Lance stepped back, eager to leave Coran to grieve in privacy.

Lance's leg twisted behind him. He gasped out at the sudden pain and moved quickly, pressing his back against the hallway wall out of Coran's sight and trying not to breathe. The sound of frantic movement carried out to the hall, followed by Coran's weak voice asking if anyone was there. Lance remained quiet, praying he wouldn't get up to check.

It wasn't until Coran's quiet sobbing recommenced that Lance allowed himself to breathe again. With gentle steps, he made his way back down the hall in the direction from which he had come. He stopped several corridors turns later, in front of a large photo of Allura. It was the first sentimental thing he had encountered in the castle.

She was young in the picture, eyes wide and hair unruly. Standing behind her were two men, one with the princess' pale hair and bright eyes and the other a much more carefree Coran. Lance was taken aback by how young Coran looked when he was happy. The red-haired man was laughing, his head thrown back and a hand clutching his chest - the action so similar to what he had done during his earlier panic attack that Lance couldn't help but compare the man he had just met to the man in the photograph.

The other man seemed to be torn between watching the young princess and Coran. His face had settled into a fond expression, facing Coran but observing at Allura from the corner of his eyes. His while hair, while so similar to Allura's, held strands of silver and hung past his ears, the tips disappearing into the collar of his armour. Similarly to Coran, the bottom of his face was covered by elegant facial hair, as white as his hair.

Alfor. Coran's lost Soulmate.

Lance startled at the sound of feet but forced himself to relax as Coran rounded the corner. The older man looked perfectly normal, his eyes clear and smile wide. Lance reminded himself to keep an eye on the Altean, and to offer whatever meagre comfort he could.

Coran stopped beside him and regarded the photograph, his face split between sorrow and affection. "Alfor always loved this one. I hated it, I'm not even paying attention. I don't quite remember what made me laugh like that."

"I like it," Lance admitted. "You look… happy. Carefree."

Coran stepped away from the photo without comment and Lance fell into place by the older man's side. If Coran realised that it was Lance who had disturbed him earlier, he didn't reveal it, smiling at the younger man brightly and keeping pace as they moved through the halls.

"You said you were King? So you're like, Allura's dad?"

Coran chuckled at Lance's question. "King-consort. My husband was the king. He was Allura's father."

Lance's brow wrinkled. "But you aren't? Her dad, I mean. How does that work?"

"Alfor was already Soulbonded when we met. Caroika, his Soulmate, was pregnant with Allura."

"Alfor had two soulmates?"

Coran chuckled. "My dear boy, each of us had two soulmates. We were what was referred to as a Soul Gatherance, a set of souls bonded equally to each other."

"I didn't even know that could happen. On Earth, the only way to have more than one Soulmate was for the first to die," Lance explained.

Coran stiffened at his words and seemed to close himself off to Lance's presence, dissuading any other questions the younger man may have had.

Belatedly, he realised that being one of the last Altean's meant that both of Coran's soulmates were dead. Before Lance could apologise for upsetting him, Allura's voice echoed through the castle requesting everybody's presence in the control room.

"I have located the red lion," Allura announced, gesturing behind her when Lance, following closely behind Coran, walked into the room. Everyone else was already gathered, eyes watching the holographic screen where a model of the red lion rotated slowly. Beside it was what appeared to be the blueprints of a large space craft.

"Who will pilot her?" Hunk asked. "Will you, Princess Allura?"

"I am not a paladin, but in the absence of a true paladin I can pilot the lion myself. However, I cannot do so until the lion first agrees to be piloted." She turned to Lance. "Blue paladin, you will need to retrieve the red lion in order for her to grant me permission."

He startled. "Me? But, but I already have a lion. I can't just-"

Allura's eyes glanced towards Shiro. "In the past, the red and blue paladins have shared… on Altea it is called a Soulbond. This allows them to connect with each other's lions in a way outsiders cannot."

"I don't have a soulmate."

Allura blinked at him, her pale eyes wide with confusion. "Of course you do, every generation of blue paladins has been bonded to the red lion and her paladin."

"No, you don't…" Lance winced. "My soulmate is dead. I haven't been able to feel their presence since I was nine years old. One day they were there and the next they weren't."

"Lance…"

He cut Hunk off with a watery smile. "It's fine. You'll have to find a new blue paladin though, I suppose. Since they're supposed to be a set."

"Lance." Coran's voice was strong and when he looked at the older man his eyes were kind. "I'm not sure how it works on Earth, but on Altea, and for every species that I have encountered who have Soulbonds - which is, I must say, quite a few - the death of a Soulmate is something one feels deeply. It is…" Coran's voice broke and he took a second to regain his composure. "Losing a Soulmate causes a great deal of physical pain."

It was something Lance had begun to suspect, ever since he witnessed Coran's breakdown at the loss of Alfor. A possibility he hadn't allowed himself to consider. After spending so many years hoping his Soulmate was alive somehow, the confirmation felt like a weight had been released from his body, and his eyes teared up without his consent. He no longer had the strength to prevent himself from believing what Coran was telling him. Lance let out a sound that was more a sob than a laugh, but he was smiling.

"My Soulmate is alive? We… we need to find them. We need to figure out where they are and-"

"We will," Shiro promised. "But right now, we need the red lion."

.

Unfortunately retrieving the red lion proved to be more complicated than Allura had let on. The blueprints on the hologram had indeed been for a space craft, and not just any spaceship but a _Galran_ spaceship.

Lance pressed his back against the stark metal wall of the ship and peered around the edge of his helmet, unaccustomed to the barrier between his face and the outside world. He couldn't find it in him to conjure up any true annoyance though, considering it was the only thing allowing him to breathe on the _alien spaceship_ , in _space_.

His fingers were tense around the grip of his bayard, eager to transform it back into the sleek gun it had formed when Allura had given it to him. However, it would take him time to adjust to the weight and it wasn't the most useful when conducting a stealth mission.

Truthfully, he wasn't certain that he actually could shoot someone if it came to it. He hoped he wouldn't have to find out any time soon.

By his side, Hunk fidgeted, his anxiety clearly visible from the sweat beading across his forehead and the half-mangled state of his bottom lip. Pidge's lion, being the smallest and, in Pidge's words, the sneakiest, had been volunteered to infiltrate the enemy vessel with Pidge and Lance on-board. Allura had barely finished explaining the plan when Hunk had cut in, demanding that he was going as well. It had caused a deep fondness to swell in Lance's stomach. The same fondness that came when the larger man surprised him with his favourite baked treat or a spontaneous movie night. A fondness that reminded Lance why Hunk was his best friend in the first place.

As much as he would have preferred to keep Hunk out of danger, he was incredibly relieved to have him by his side.

A sharp clang echoed through the vents above them, followed by a curse that one wouldn't expect to come from someone as innocent looking as Pidge. Hunk's blaster had materialised for a moment before a hissed command from the vents told him to relax. He'd released the blaster's form, but his body remained tense enough to make Lance want to stretch his own shoulders in response.

"Hey buddy," Lance whispered, gently nudging Hunk's shoulder. "Chill, alright. We've got this. What's a couple of purple freaks against the paladins of Voltron?"

Hunk let out a laugh in return, weak and thin with nerves and louder than intended as it reverberated through the narrow walkway. Lance gripped Hunk's shoulder, sending what he hoped was a reassuring smile in his friend's direction without taking his eyes off the corridor ahead.

"Pidge," Lance whispered up to the vent, "how much longer?"

Pidge's reply came from behind him, close enough that he could feel the breath of their words against his neck. "I'm finished."

Lance flinched, barely holding back a squeal, and glared at the boy. "What the fuck, Pidge?"

Pidge shrugged and walked ahead, more confident than Lance thought was beneficial. "I checked this corridor, there's no cameras. Let's go."

"Ninja," Lance hissed as he moved past his teammate.

Pidge's grin made it clear that he wasn't insulted by the comment. If anything, he looked proud. It hadn't lessened the determined glint that had entered Pidge's eyes the second they had stepped onto the ship, though.

They moved through the corridors slowly, with Pidge sneaking forward through the ventilation systems at every new turn. Until the twentieth corridor had come and passed without a single disruption and Pidge dropped down to declare that it would be quicker to move forward without scouting. Despite Lance and Hunk's protests, Pidge convinced them that it was the best way forward and they continued on.

At the end of the next corridor, there was an open door. Lance registered the flash of purple first and pressed his back against the wall, one hand reaching out to instinctively press Hunk against the wall beside him. Through the doorway, someone, something, groaned. Pidge pulled away Hunk's hand - which had done the exact same thing to him that Lance's had done to Hunk - and peered around the doorframe.

Pidge's spine stiffened, and a gasp left his mouth. Hunk was quick to push away Lance's hand and join the younger boy. The larger man's face turned green at whatever he saw. Slowly, cautiously, Lance peered around the corner.

Two galran officers stood in the room, gesturing aggressively at each another. But it wasn't until one stepped forward that Lance was able to see what was making even Pidge look queasy.

An alien was stumped to the ground, their gelatinous mass spread out over the floor. Their body was bright green, with darker splotches across their form and despite the strange consistency of their body they were solid enough for the buzzing purple brace around their neck. It took a moment for what Lance was seeing to sink into his mind. When it did, he realised that the strange patterns of darker green weren't markings, but blood.

The creature before them was a prisoner.

Shiro had been a prisoner. Matt had been a prisoner.

For the first time, Lance understood that Shiro's story had gaps, memories that had been edited out because they were too terrible to say aloud.

The creature on the ground groaned and Hunk grabbed Pidge's arm as the younger boy tried to lunge forward. Lance helped him move Pidge away from the doorway, but Hunk didn't stop until they were several corridors away.

"No," Hunk said, his voice stronger than before. "No."

"Let me go, let me… we need to do something…"

"Pidge, I know you want to help." Hunk glanced at Lance briefly. "I _know_ , Pidge. But this isn't the way to do anything except get yourself killed."

Pidge held Hunk's gaze for a long time before his body collapsed, letting Hunk hold his weight. Hunk wrapped his arms around him and Lance was surprised when Pidge didn't push him away.

"I don't like this," Hunk said, when Pidge finally pulled away. "Let's just find the lion and get out. Lance, which way?"

Lance closed his eyes, focusing on the space in the back of his mind that belonged to someone else. He wasn't certain that it would work, he hadn't consciously tried to seek out Blue, it was as if his lion had been the one to find him rather than the other way around. But there, deep in his mind, something was awake. He could feel the Red lion's presence and he knew, logically, that he needed to focus on it and try to figure out where it was located, but there was another presence, stronger even than the lion's.

His Soulmate was on the ship.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story has been coming to me really easily but canon is soon to be broken and I know that it'll be much slower once I'm doing more than editing what already exists. I also really need to update my other fics so since I'm really loving this story I'm forcing myself not to update it until I've written one chapter for something else first.
> 
> All the love is appreciated!!


	6. Chapter Five

A strand of Allura’s hair was glued to her cheek as she typed, the same colourless white that Shiro’s had begun to turn. No matter how much he struggled, his eyes kept drifting back to her slender form. She was beautiful, maybe the most beautiful girl he’d ever seen, but what did that matter when she wasn’t Matt?

Beside him, Coran paced, his gaze moving tactlessly between Shiro and Allura. He clapped, the sound taking up too much space in the quiet room and turned to face Shiro and Allura.

“The, uh, quantum turbines haven’t been checked in quite a while, so I should probably go… do that.” Coran turned to Allura, his voice dropping in volume but not subtlety, and whispered, “Good luck, Princess.”

The older man exited the room with long, unwavering strides, determined enough that Shiro wondered, briefly, if perhaps the quantum turbines really did need to be checked. When the door behind them slid closed, Allura remained stiff at the control panel, her back to Shiro. The pale tendril of hair had slipped loose to hang limp by her ear and Shiro’s fingers twitched, the urge to tuck the hair away so strong it was almost painful.

They stood like that for a long, tense moment, until Allura’s shoulders slumped. Her hands spread over the control panel as if reaching for something Shiro couldn’t see before she let out a sigh and turned to face him.

Her eyes were framed by thick lashes that curled up to brush against her brow bones, such a small thing to notice, but the gentle femininity of them shocked Shiro. Matt’s eyelashes didn’t have that same curl, the same elegance as they spread out across her cheeks when she blinked.

“Shiro,” Allura said.

And, oh. There it was again. That jolt in the back of his mind when she spoke to him, that familiarity he had only ever experienced with Matt. Until then.

He wished she would stop looking at him. Her eyes were the type of blue found only in dreams, vivid and unearthly beautiful. Devastatingly beautiful.

He had to stop this, had to tell her–

“I know you are not alone.” Allura’s hands twisted together, her eyes softening at the edges. “I understand that this is… I can see that this is strange for you.”

Shiro didn’t take his eyes off of hers – wouldn’t, couldn’t, he wasn’t sure anymore – but he nodded and let the rational part of his mind overpower the rest. “His name is Matt. You called it a Soulbond, on Earth we call them Soulmates. He was with me, when I was captured but we were separated. I lost connection to him when I returned to Earth but now…”

“He is not dead.”

“Coran said as much, but a part of me can’t stop thinking, and now you’re here and that usually means… There is only one reason for someone to have two Soulmates. And it isn’t an option I can handle, not now, not ever. I understand that Coran knows what it feels like to lose a Soulmate, a Soulbond, but he isn’t human and there’s no way of knowing whether it’s even comparable. And then, you’re here and I don’t know what that means.” Shiro paused, surprised by the ease that had settled in his bones, surprised by the desire to talk to Allura without self-restrictions. 

“Matt is alive, Shiro. That I am certain of,” Allura cut in.

Her eyes were wide, gentle pools prompting him, almost without conscious thought, to ask his next question. “How can you be sure?”

“Because,” Allura said, stepping forward and taking his hands in hers, “I feel him too.”

.

Hunk and Pidge leaned their heads together, sharing one of their intense looks that Lance had never managed to figure out and whispering quietly but hastily to each other. Pidge hadn’t stopped trembling since they had seen the prisoner, but Lance wasn’t sure if it was fear or anger behind it. The younger boy glanced over at Lance before seeming to strengthen his argument. Lance watched as Hunk began to show the first signs that he would eventually give in to whatever demand Pidge was making.

The bond in his mind ached as another sharp tug muddled Lance’s thoughts. Keeping his eyes locked on his arguing friends, he took a step back, and then another. Once he was around the corner he sped up, following along blindly as the link was pulled taut and became more active.

He wandered through the darkened, identical corridors of the Galran ship, aware but uncaring that he had no idea where he was headed or how he was going to return to his friends.

What did that matter, when his Soulmate bond was humming louder with every step further into the heart of the Galran ship.

It took him a second too long to realise that there was another sound, not in his head, but in the corridor. Moving steadily closer was a set of footsteps, the heavy type that only came with the thick boots he had been required to wear with his Garrison uniform.

Or, apparently, a seven-foot, purple alien wearing an armoured bodysuit.

Lance held his breath, one hand across his mouth, as the Galra stopped less than a meter away from the alcove he had ducked into. He hadn’t gotten a proper look at any of the Galra on the mining planet they had found Yellow on, mostly because he had been preoccupied trying not to die.

The galra before him slumped against the wall further down the hall and tugged off their helmet. Lance was surprised to find that other than their complexion and their pointed ears, they seemed to be very similar to humans or alteans. If humans or alteans were at least seven feet tall, that is. And since he had only met two alteans, it was completely possible that at least some of them could have been taller.

The transmitter in his helmet came to life with the high-pitched sound of static.

“Lance? Lance, where did you go?” Hunk’s voice, wrought with panic sounded in his ears.

“Lance, what the fuck?” Pidge snapped. “Hunk’s going cra–”

Lance reached up and cut the transmission. He was too nervous to allow guilt to settle in his stomach. The galra’s ears flicked up, like the old cat that lived on his street back home. The galra’s eyes lingered in Lance’s direction for one tense minute before they touched something on their wrist, muttered something that Lance was certain was a curse, and hurried down the hallway.

All of the air deflated from Lance’s chest.

.

Allura’s hands here a steady warmth in his own, he pulled away from them. “I, you, I don’t understand. You feel him? How?”

“On Earth, it is different I assume? This would be… rare?”

“On Earth, you don’t get two Soulmates unless the first is, is–” Shiro’s words caught in his throat. “How can you feel him, is it because you’re Altean, because you’re connected to the Universe?”

“I am only connected to the lions, not the Universe. I can sense Matt for the same reason I can sense you. On Altea, we call it, called it, a Soul Gatherance,” Allura explained. “A Soulbond of three or four or more, even. My parents were a Gatherance. It was not common, but not rare, either.”

Shiro ran a hand, skin and flesh and blood, through his hair, letting strands catch between his fingers and allowing the pain to ground him to reality. “So, some of the Gatherance, they have multiple Soulmates? And that’s, that’s okay? With the rest.”

“No.” Allura stepped forward and reached out for Shiro’s other hand, metal and death and pain.

He stepped out of reach. “No?”

“In a Gatherance, all is equal. Everyone is interconnected, there is no one left behind. Coran was my father’s Soulbonded, but also my mother’s.”

“So, Matt,” Shiro prompted.

“Is my Soulbonded,” Allura answered. “Just as you are.”

Shiro frowned, waiting for jealousy to cloud his body. Instead, a sense of comfort crept through his veins at the thought of Matt and Allura and himself together, equal. 

“I thought I’d lost him,” Shiro admitted, refusing to meet Allura’s gaze as he granted her his honesty. “I still feel that way, because until he’s back I don’t think I’ll be able to shake the sense that I failed him. I may never be able to escape it. I tried so hard, and I lost him anyway. I hurt him, I thought I was protecting him. I didn’t know.”

“He is out there, Shiro, and we will get him back. Together.”

A layer of relief covered Shiro, like the sun setting at the end of a long day, finally time for the cool night air to settle in. For the first time in a very long time, this was no longer his burden to bare alone.

“-llura, Princess Allura, come in,” Hunk’s voice broke the stillness of the room.

Allura leapt forward, pressing a button on the control panel which brought up an image of Hunk on the screen. “Yellow Paladin, report.”

“I don’t know what happened, he was here and then,” Hunk rambled, his eyes nervous with worry.

“Hunk,” Shiro cut him off, moving to Allura’s side. “What happened?”

Pidge’s head popped into view as she spoke. “We lost Lance.”

.

Lance waited another few minutes, ignoring the impatient tugging of his Soulmate bond, before continuing down the corridor. Now, rather than walking around more focused on what was happening inside his head than on what was happening outside, he hesitated and listened before every turn.

He turned a sharp corner and stumbled back, hitting his heel on the wall behind him. Standing with his back to him, less than a hundred meters away, was a man. He hadn’t heard the man before turning the corner, and the man didn’t seem aware of his presence yet. Lance meant to step back, out of sight, but the sharp tug of his Soulmate bond stopped him.

He could make out the strong arch of the man’s spine, the way the tight black material of his suit moulded to his muscular back and across his shoulders. His amour was light, to protect him without compromising his agility, Lance assumed. Despite the hard panes of muscle, his body was lean, easily half the width of Shiro’s. At his waist hung what Lance would have called a gun holster, long like a riffle, if he hadn’t been able to see the imprint of the smooth edge of a sword against the leather.

His dark hair was pulled into a knot at the back of his head, strands fluttering across his neck. Lance let out an exhale of awe and the man turned, his spine stiffening and eyes widening as he saw Lance. A few more strands of his inky hair were loose, framing his face and making his amethyst eyes appear brighter in comparison. In his hands was a second blade, shorter, more accurately described as a dagger than a sword. It glinted red, catching the reflection of the lion towering behind him.

The lion was impressive, her metallic coat a bright red, like rubies. Her eyes seemed sharper than Blue’s, untrusting and, honestly, a little frightening in their intensity. She was magnificent, but Lance spared only a second on her before his eyes were glued back to the man. 

He was more beautiful than Lance had ever dreamed he would be, but Lance’s mind was preoccupied by one surprising detail.

His Soulmate’s skin was a pale shade of lavender.

Lance stepped forward, almost trancelike as he approached the man before him. Under the glint of the Red Lion, his Soulmate’s skin looked like it was alight with purple flames. It was the most incredible thing he had ever seen.

“There you are,” Lance muttered, barely a whisper in the quiet room. In his mind, his Soulmate bond writhed with more energy than he’d ever experienced.

The other man shook off his surprise first, his eyes darting behind Lance before he reached forward and grabbed hold of Lance’s shoulder. He pulled Lance away from the entrance and into an alcove half bathed in shadow.

“What are you doing on this ship?” his Soulmate questioned, eyes glancing around, darting from the corners of the room, to the entrance, to the Red Lion and then, finally, back to Lance.

Lance had planned the moment a hundred times in his mind, even long after he’d accepted his Soulmate’s death. But when he spoke, rather than the confident, easy charm he had envisioned, his voice was quiet, reverent. “Looking for you.”

“You’re human,” his Soulmate whispered, eyes seeming to struggle to find a point to focus on, instead shifting over Lance’s face. “Of course, you’re human.”

“You’re beautiful,” Lance replied truthfully.

His Soulmate paused, hand half raised towards Lance’s face, when the stomp of heavy boots echoed through the attached corridor. Lance reacted on instinct, reaching out to shield the man in front of him as his bayard shifted into a gun.

“We need to leave,” Lance insisted, blood racing as he prepared himself. He didn’t want to fight, wasn’t even sure he knew how to, but he would if it meant protecting his Soulmate.

His Soulmate pressed a warm palm to Lance’s chest, gently pushing Lance further into the shadows. “No. Stay here and shut up. Do you trust me?”

“Yes,” Lance replied instantly.

“Then you’re an idiot.”

“Probably, yeah.”

Lance could have sworn that the corner of his Soulmate’s mouth twitched at his reply.

With one last firm push to Lance’s chest, forcing him further into the shadows, his Soulmate stepped into the light. Lance reached out, his mouth open to cry out, but the hard glint of his Soulmate’s gaze cut him off. Lance watched, heart throbbing against his ribcage, as his Soulmate, _holy shit, his Soulmate_ , strolled into the centre of the room as two armoured guards entered the space.

Lance palms were damp, his knuckles white with pressure as he held his gun ready. Across the room, his Soulmate reached down, fingers skimming across the back of his suit. Where, Lance realised belatedly, he had hidden the dagger that had been in his hands moments ago. Lance hadn’t even noticed the moment it happened, too preoccupied by the slender lines of the man’s cheekbones and the soft pout of his lips.

The guards spotted Lance’s Soulmate, their stances stiff as they moved in his direction. The thought that he might lose this man within minutes of finally getting to meet him slunk into his mind.

Despite how the darkened alcove muddied his line of vision and his utter lack of combat training, Lance lined up to take the shot. He wasn’t sure how tough the Galran armour was, but Blue’s cannon seemed to work well enough and so, he prayed, would his gun at close enough contact. He took a breath, held it, and then released it slowly, lining his finger up with the trigger.

The guards stopped. And bowed. It was no more than a tilt of their heads, really, but they remained that way for several long seconds before Lance’s Soulmate raised his hand and they retook their earlier stances.

Lance’s finger slipped off of the trigger.

They spoke in discreet tones, too quiet for the words to travel across the room to Lance’s alcove. All he could make out of their conversation was that their words held a distinct, gritty edge lacked by the human tongue. After a long minute, Lance’s finger never far from the trigger, the two guards stepped back, saluted, and retreated back the way they’d came.

Lance’s Soulmate remained in the centre of the room for a moment longer before returning to Lance’s hiding place.

“You’re not a prisoner?” Lance asked, his voice edged with anxiety.

His Soulmate hesitated, watching Lance’s face warily. Waiting, Lance realised, for whatever negative response he’d expected. Lance made sure not to show his uncertainty on his face.

“You have to leave,” his Soulmate said, eventually. “I know you aren’t here alone, go find your friends and get out before it’s too late.”

Lance’s gaze shifted over his Soulmate’s shoulder. “We can’t go without the red lion.”

His Soulmate paused, looking between the Red Lion and Lance before nodding. “Go with them,” he commanded, followed by something quieter that Lance couldn’t catch.

The Red Lion shifted, the sound deafening in the large room, and sat her head down on the ground. Her mouth lay open, an invitation. Lance wasn’t sure when it had changed, but her eyes had softened, losing their hard edge and welcoming him without the earlier hostility.

“Will you pilot her?” His Soulmate’s eyes are focused not on Lance, but on the Lion.

“No,” Lance replied. “I have the blue lion. But I’ll take care of her, I promise.”

His Soulmate turned to him. “Don’t let her come back for me.”

Lance reached out and rested his fingers against his Soulmate’s arm. It was warm and solid beneath his hand. “What about you?”

His Soulmate couldn’t meet his eyes. “I’m in no danger here.”

Lance stepped towards the Red Lion but paused, turning back. “I don’t even know your name.”

“Keith.”

Lance let the name settle under his skin. Keith, his Soulmate’s name was Keith.

“Lance.” He stepped into the Red Lion’s mouth, leaning out to grin at Keith as it began to close. “ _Dios_ , it’s nice to meet you.”


End file.
